OF AN INSECT-HUNTER. 407 



Brook Farm and Hennor; then turns N., taking the circuit of 

 Eaton Hill, and joining Cheaton, falls into Ridgemoor at 

 Ridgemoor Bridge ; and the united stream immediately after- 

 wards falls into Lug. 



Humber rises near Bockelton, runs S.W. under the London 

 road at Steen Bridge, four miles from Lemster ; then S. 

 by Risbury Camp, under the Ledbury road, four miles and 

 a half from Leominster; and unites with Lug at Hampton 

 Court. 



The waters of Leominster are described. 



Chapter XVIII. 



[In which the Insect-Hunter talketh of Fish.] 



A fish occasionally occurs in the waters of Lemster, 

 which has given rise to considerable difference of opinion 

 among fishermen ; it is called the Samlet. Some insist that it 

 is a yearling salmon ; others as confidently assert that it is a 

 totally distinct species. This fish was formerly found in con- 

 siderable abundance, but is now so rare, that, although making 

 continual inquiries, I have been unable to obtain the sight of 

 a single one since the publication of Yarrell's British Fishes ; 

 and, therefore, have never had an opportunity of comparing it 

 with the description and figure of the samlet in that work. 

 Owing to some regulation by the proprietor of the fish lower 

 down the Lug, the passage of the salmon has been stopped, or 

 nearly so, and the capture of a salmon so high up as Lemster 

 is now a very uncommon circumstance. Formerly, salmon 

 used to be tolerably abundant, and averaged between five and 

 six pounds in weight : those of a larger size than eight or nine 

 pounds were always esteemed rarities ; but there is on record 

 an instance of one having been killed at Osborne's Mills, that 

 weighed no less than thirty-two pounds. The simultaneous 

 and almost total disappearance of both salmon and samlet, fa- 

 vours the opinion that they are one and the same fish ; because, 

 whatever means may have been taken to arrest the bulky sal- 

 mon in their way up the stream at the season of migration, the 

 same means would scarcely stop so diminutive a fish as the 

 samlet. Salmon and samlet were more abundant in Lug 

 than in Arro ; in Oney, they were very rarely seen. 



